Spread Spectrum, Wireless Security and the

World’s most Beautiful Geek

Presented by: John G. O’Leary, CISSP

AbstractShe certainly didn’t look like a geek. And in her movies and interviews, she never sounded particularly technical. Yet Hedy Lamarr, frequently cited in the 1930’s, 40’s and 50’s as “the most beautiful woman in the world,” was granted the patent on a frequency hopping technique that serves as one of the cornerstones of security for wireless devices even today. A rare mix of brains and beauty, Ms Lamarr never received a cent from any of her inventions. She signed over the rights to frequency hopping spread spectrum to the US Navy, but the invention was so far ahead of its time that the Navy didn’t initially understand what it had.We’ll cover her story, her invention and how it relates to security for the mobile, connected world of 2014.

AgendaYoung HedyMarriage, technical learning, and escapeHedy in HollywoodGeorge AnthielInventions and the patentNavy “No, but Thanks for the Patent”Spread spectrum Uses todayHedy’s latter days

Young HedyHedwig Eva Maria Kiesler – Nov. 9, 1914, ViennaParents – “assimilated Jewish”

Father - Emil –Director of a bankMother – Gertrude – Concert pianist, stopped working to care for her only child

Learned languages, ballet, piano, etc.Early interest in actingSocially engineered her way into job as a script girlTalked her way into small movie partsConvinced parents to let her drop out of school

Young Hedy At 18, starred in her fourth movie Ekstase, featuring the first ever nude scene

Parents shocked, walked out of theater Movie banned in US, but people now knew

the name Hedy Kiesler Got more roles and intense attention from

Fritz Mandl, very rich arms maker who would shortly become husband #1

Marriage #1, Technical Learning and Escape

Mandl was extremely possessive• Tried to buy up all copies of Ekstase• No more movies or stage for Hedy• But she did attend many dinners Fritz gave for clients (German and Austrian military)• Kept quiet, but absorbed knowledge, technical and operational, on weaponry• “Any girl can be glamorous. All you have to do is

stand still and look stupid.”

Marriage #1, Technical Learning and Escape

What she learned at home with Fritz Mandl and his military clients played a crucial

part in her later inventions Helmuth Walter, genius of German torpedo design talked of H2O2 (hydrogen peroxide) as fuel “As we had dinner, he was talking about his remote-controlled, wakeless torpedo” Hedy listened …. and learned

But she was growing further away from Fritz

Marriage #1, Technical Learning and Escape

She wanted to go back on the stage Strong resentment of her husband’s possessiveness and jealousy Had an affair at St. Moritz with Erich Maria Remarque (All Quiet on the Western Front) Enlisted Fritz’s good friend Prince Starhemberg to help her get a stage role Mandl was furious Hedy quickly went to Paris, divorced Fritz, then on to London

Marriage #1, Technical Learning and Escape

In London, met Louis B. Mayer, Hollywood mogul “… I don’t like what people would think about a

girl who flits bare-assed around a screen.” But he was eyeing her from every angle She bought her own ticket to sail on the Normandie …Mayer was also on the ship Prior to the voyage, he offered a contract for $125 per week for six months She said no On ship he offered $500 a week for 7 years

Marriage #1, Technical Learning and Escape

But Mayer didn’t like the name Kiesler for her, so Hedy Lamarr was christened (by Mayer’s wife)

Barbara La Marr, whom had died earlier that year at 29, had been considered “the most beautiful girl in the world” and was a favorite of Mayer’s

But not of Mrs. Mayer She disliked the “Casting couch”

1937 – Hedy hits Hollywood

Hedy In Hollywood Didn’t really go for the party girl routine But played the game Preferred nights at home inventing Set up technical library and workspace at home Lost weight, learned English, started getting parts “Come with me to the Casbah” iconic remark

directed to her character in Algiers Became a full-fledged Hollywood star … and

started to show signs of “Diva-hood”

Hedy In Hollywood Lots of movies, but not happy Main problem was her intelligence Not expected, utilized or appreciated by bigwigs Grew petulant, uncooperative, demanding, … a

true diva Married #2 Gene Markey in 1939; divorced 1940 Married #3 John Loder, 2 kids, then divorce #4 Ted Stauffer, #5 Howard Lee, #6 Loius Boies Jr.

But kept inventing through all of it

George Anthiel Bad Boy of Music – title of his autobiography

Earlier works caused riots in Europe when first played

Viewed (by some) as a sign of geniusBallet mecanique – featured propellers, chain saws,

hammers, electric bells, player pianos, etc. Musician, composer, magazine writer, book author, inventor, expert in criminal justice, military history, etc. Deep interest in endocrinology Wound up in Hollywood writing film scores to keep bread

on the table

George Anthiel• Hedy had just dumped H#2• Was anxious and concerned • Louis B. Mayer implied her breasts were too small

• She heard about George’s endocrinology and glandular knowledge and asked a friend set up a meeting with him in August 1940.• “Hedy Lamarr wants to see you about her glands”• When they met, George’s “eyeballs sizzled”• She was “undoubtedly … the most beautiful woman on earth”

George Anthiel “… Her breasts were fine, too, real post-pituitary”

Subsequently, they started talking about the War Children who had been killed in Nazi

torpedoing of SS Volendam and SS City of Benares

Her munitions knowledge George’s new book The Shape of War to Come The need for accurate allied torpedo guidance Their joint interest in inventing

Inventions and the Patent George and Hedy both very patriotic Hedy was the GI’s favorite pinup – barracks, foxholes, ship bunks, airplane panels, etc. No evidence of romance between the inventors,

but Anthiel’s wife not happy George and Hedy were purely focused on making

a better torpedo guidance system Early 1940’s US (and everyone else) had trouble with torpedos – duds, guidance post-release, jamming, etc. Wire guidance helped some, but still needed work

Inventions and the Patent Philco 1939 “Mystery Control” was an inspiration

Remote tuning Dialer with finger holes for 8 stations Off capability – had to be turned on by hand Volume control

Radio control was futuristic at that time, but not really a new, patentable idea

“Hopping of frequencies” (Hedy’s term) made it much less susceptible to jamming

Inventions and the Patent Hedy’s idea was radio-control with a unique way

to defeat jamming Use not just one frequency to send directional signals to the torpedo, but multiple frequencies within the band Hop from one frequency to seemingly random others, never sending more than a small segment of signal on any one frequency As long as the receiver knows the frequencies and

the timing to change and the size of the chips, it’s very difficult to jam

Inventions and the Patent She envisioned the scenario• One sub or surface ship fires the torpedo• Target ship tries to jam homing signals• An airplane watches torpedo wake and target

maneuvers to see that torpedo is tracking to target• Plane sends correction information to the ship• Ship sends frequency hopping direction correction

signals to the torpedo – defeats jamming• Torpedo, receives, assembles message chips and

makes corrections• Boom!!

Inventions and the Patent Hedy had the idea But that’s not enough for a patent George remembered the player pianos from

his Ballet MecaniqueDriven by rolls of punched paper tapeEach row a noteSynchronizedAnalogous to frequencies in a transmission band

Inventions and the Patent The patented idea must be “reduced to practice George Anthiel’s conducting and composing

experiences were invaluable here.

Inventions and the Patent The punched paper control rolls of player pianos gave George an idea of how to make separate machines talk to each other in synchrony “Idea for a Radio-Controlled Torpedo” gradually mutated into a “Secret Communications System” 11 August 1942 – Patent # 2292387 issued to

George Anthiel and “Hedy Kiesler Markey”

Navy “No, but Thanks for the Patent”

“… mechanism proposed is too bulky to be incorporated in the average torpedo

Hedy and George imagined the Navy saying “My God, we can’t put a player piano in a torpedo”

Rejected the technology, but acquired the patent No inkling of use for Secret Communications

System

Navy “No, but Thanks for the Patent”

Neither inventor cleared a penny for the invention Navy still has never completely explained rejecting idea, but keeping patent Anthiel – back to composing symphonies and movie music Hedy – contributed to War effort in Bond drives

$25 Million in bonds through her $7 Million in one day

Spread Spectrum Two types - both try to sound like noise

Frequency Hopping – Hedy’s Direct Sequence – Later development

FHSS – Hops over 75 different frequencies in a somewhat random sequence shared by transmitter and receiver

22 distinct hopping patterns Receiver can detect hop pattern and synchronize to sender

Frequent changes in pattern

Spread SpectrumDSSS –

Each message bit segmented and sent over different frequencies

Receiver blends chips to decode original signal

Looks and sounds like wideband background noise

Multiple DSSS signals complicate eavesdropping

Combinations of FHSS and DSSS work well

Uses Today Every cell phone on earth ISM bands

Industrial Scientific Medical

Sharing of a common band among users without the users having to coordinate WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, MILSATCOM, fleet tracking, RFID tags, drones, Bar-code readers, ……………

Hedy’s Latter Days 1993 – Pioneer Award from Electronic

Frontier Foundation

Other Inventing and engineering awards followed

But the most beautiful woman in the world was now in her 80’s and had received some bad plastic surgery

Recluse in Florida, died 19 Jan. 2000 at 85

Lessons

Learn what you can where you can

Beauty does not preclude brains (nor does it 29guarantee them)

Don’t be reluctant to ask for help fleshing out your ideas

Credit isn’t always monetary, and it may not come immediately

References Rhodes, Richard, Hedy’s Folly, Doubleday, New

York, 2011, ISBN 978-0-385-53438-3Parish, James R., Hollywood Divas, Contemporary Books, New York, 2003, ISBN 0-07-140819-3Miller, Stewart S., WiFi Security, McGraw-Hill,

New York, 2003, ISBN 0-07-141073-2Braun, Sandra, Women Inventors Who Changed the World, Rosen Publishing, New York, 2012, ISBN 987-1-4488-5996-2